Most of us know the story of Moses: how Pharaoh fearing that the Israelite slaves were multiplying faster than the Egyptians, and just might rebel, ordered all male babies to be thrown into the Nile; how Moses was sent down the river in a basket, and retrieved by the Pharaoh’s daughter, and grew up in the royal household although he’d been born a Hebrew slave; how he saw the difference between their lives and his, and killed an Egyptian task master who was beating a Hebrew slave, and then ran away into the desert where he married a high priests’ daughter. And this is where our story begins: Exodus 3:1-12

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’ When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ He said further, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ He said, ‘I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.’

We are standing on holy groundand I know that there are angels all aroundlet us praise Jesus now,we are standing in his presence on holy ground.

(The following are shown in photos on the screen while Monique underscores the hymn on the piano)

Sprawling Mexico City - population 20 million - density of 24,600 people per square mile rolls across the landscape, displacing every scrap of natural habitat.

A coal burning power plant in the United Kingdom

The Mir Mine in Russia is the largest diamond mine on earth.

An Indonesian surfer Dede Surinaya catches a wave in a remote but garbage covered bay on Java, Indonesia, the world’s most populated island.

A shepherd by the Yellow River covers his nose against the odor in Inner Mongolia, China.

Waste from obsolete computers and other electronics are typically shipped to the developing world for sorting and / or disposal. This dump site is in Accra, Ghana.

The Ken Oil Field in CA. Depleting oil fields are yet another symptom of ecological overshoot.

Please sing with me:

We are standing on holy groundand I know that there are angels all aroundlet us praise Jesus now,we are standing in his presence on holy ground.

The Western fjords in Norway, which normally freeze in winter, remained ice free all season. This bear is headed north, looking for a suitable sea ice on which to hunt. Finding none. it eventually collapsed and died.

An aerial view of the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, where mining operations and tailing ponds are so vast they can be seen from outer space.

On Midway Island, far from the centers of world commerce, an albatross, dead from ingesting plastic, decays on the beach. It is a common sight on the remote island.

What was previously old-growth forest has been leveled for reservoir development in Willamette National Forest in Oregon

The ravaging effects of drought in the Central Valley of CA.

Oil spills damaging coast lines and wild life.

And children living on the margins.

Let’s stand and sing one more time.

We are standing on holy groundand I know that there are angels all aroundlet us praise Jesus now,we are standing in his presence on holy ground.

A burning bush in the desert - that was cause for alarm in the life of a shepherd, who depended on the land to feed his flocks. If a fire was not contained, it would spread rapidly destroying everything in its path for miles. Whole communities could be devastated.

God put fire in that bush to get Moses’ attention - and it worked! But what Moses saw at first as a potential disaster, turned out to be something quite different - the voice of God calling to him: “Moses, Moses!.. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

The Yellow River in Mongolia is holy ground.The western fjords in Norway are holy ground.Alberta Canada is holy ground.The drought ravaged Central Valley of California is holy ground.

It’s all holy. It’s all sacred, this beautiful planet of ours, but unlike the bush Moses stood observing, the fire is spreading, and God is calling out to us: “Take off your shoes! Open your eyes and look around! Look at this holy ground I entrusted to your care.”

Moses had left behind his people for a more comfortable life herding sheep - until, as Amy Butler so beautifully puts it: “…he ran smack into something holy - God, that is, who broke into Moses’ perfectly contented desert existence with an invitation to see his world, not just from the limited vantage point of his own little perspective… but with the holy eyes of the divine.”

God wasted no time opening Moses’ eyes to what God was seeing: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…”

Those same holy eyes are seeing the misery of people today whose lives have been turned upside down by the devastating effects of climate change, by toxins spewing into our air by coal burning power plants, by trash, pollutants and sewage spilled into our water ways, by forced migration due to drought, and rising seas forcing whole indigenous populations to leave their island homes in search of higher ground.

As we sit in the comfort of our homes and affluent communities, it is easy to ignore those people and places where climate change is having the gravest implications. Pope Francis, in his encyclical reminds us that the worst impact of climate change “will probably be felt by developing countries in coming decades. Many of the poor live in areas particularly affected by phenomena related to warming. Their means of subsistence are largely dependent on agriculture, fishing and forestry. They have no other financial activities or resources which can enable them to adapt to climate change or to face natural disasters, and their access to social services and protection is very limited.”

What will it take to open our eyes and hearts to move us from denial, apathy and helplessness, from fear and hopelessness, to repentance, as Reebee spoke of last week, and to action. How will we hear God’s call?

Last Monday several of us from Eliot joined over 500 enthusiastic climate activists for an Interfaith Gathering for Climate Change at Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley. They titled the event “Answering the Call.” As one of the 10 speakers noted, “a lot of times we have sent the call straight to voice mail.” The evenings’ speakers inspired us to answer, to put our shoes back on, as Moses must have done, and get down to serious work.

Rev. Fred Small, a Unitarian Universalist minister, spoke of how he heard the call at an event led by a Buddhist teacher, who asked them to imagine a conversation with their descendants, 200 years in the future. He said he broke down and wept. Two weeks ago he left his beloved congregation in Cambridge to devote his life full-time to a new calling. He has founded Creation Coalition, an organization to mobilize people of faith as a political force for creation care and climate justice.

God called Moses to bring his people out of slavery. He protested, “Who am I that you should call me?” - but he answered the call. I think of Rev. Small, Bill McKibben of 350.org, Pope Francis, our very own Vince Maravantano, and so many others out there on the front lines of climate justice, as the Moses of our time, leading the rest of us out of a different kind of slavery: slavery to consumerism, dependence on fossil fuels, greed, slavery to our comfortable life styles that we hold on to for dear life.

So what are we, sitting hear at the Eliot Church, being called to do? We have done a lot already, individually and as a church. We are a green church, something Mayor Warren has asked all the houses of worship in Newton to achieve in the coming year. We recycle and compost, and change light bulbs. We’ve replaced our heating system to lower our carbon footprint, and been awarded an energy star. Some of us are hoping today that we will take the next steps, by installing solar panels and increasing our divestment from fossil fuels.

We are fortunate to have Vince Maraventano, the president of Mass Interfaith Power and Light to guide and encourage us in our efforts, and other members with passion and expertise who have been driving forces in our greening efforts.

So what is left to be done? Much! It was reiterated time and again on Monday evening that these individual efforts alone, though valuable and important, will not solve the problem of climate change. We need a movement and a miracle. Miracles are best left to God, but as Theresa of Avila once said, “God has no hands or feet or voice but ours”, so it’s up to us to start a movement.

350.org, Mass Interfaith Power and Light, and others have been on the front lines for some time now, but at last, many of our faith communities across the country are setting aside their differences and coming together with one voice.

Fifty religious organizations in our area, including the Eliot Church and Mass Interfaith Power and Light, came together to sponsor the event on Monday evening. It was the beginning of a movement here in Massachusetts. The next step involves all of you.

Over the coming months, our state legislators will be voting on bills that will affect our environment and our future. We ask you to join the 500 people who were there Monday evening, by thoughtfully reading the postcards and explanatory materials we have inserted in your bulletins. Then, if you are in agreement, sign them and place them in the baskets, on the altar, in the narthex or in the hall. We will deliver them to the organizing committee, who will deliver them to the state house. They need them by Friday, October 30th.

We will also be inviting anyone who can to join in a lobbying effort on November 10th at the State House. We will keep you posted. Let Reebee or I know if you are interested.

There is always a danger of becoming overwhelmed when faced with the magnitude of the problems associated with climate change. And that can leave one with a feeling of hopelessness. So I want to leave you today with a story of hope, the story of Sebastiao Salgado and his wife Lelia, and how they answered their call to action.

(the following are accompanied by photos on the screens)

Salgado is a world famous photographer, who spent much of his adult life photographing refugees fleeing from countries ravaged by war and natural disasters, making their plight visible to the world, until the day when he couldn’t absorb their pain any more.

He went back to his native Brazil, to the land that had belonged to his parents, once a cattle ranch, now arid and infertile, with dried up rivers and little more than shrubbery for vegetation, a land ravaged by deforestation and abuse.

In 1998 they founded the Instituto Terra, and decided to replant the forest.“Since then, an almost miraculous transformation has taken place.Through a scientifically planned program of raising and planting saplings, the slopes and lowland of the Instituto Terra are now covered with two million new trees of more than 300 different species.

This reforestation has resulted in the rebirth of a tropical microclimate, bringing increased rainfall and replenishing parched streams and creeks with water. Over 170 species of birds have returned, 30 species of mammals, including some listed as endangered, and many which haven’t been seen in decades.

The Instituto Terra has also embarked on an ambitious educational campaign, involving school- children, teachers, leaders of cooperative farms, and local environmental officials. They are a model of what can be achieved in other parts of the world.

“It is possible to turn back the clock and recover what seemed lost forever.”says Lélia Salgado

The bush that Moses noticed was not burned up because God was in it. This earth will remain because God is in every part of it. When we stop to look, God will call us too. God promised Moses to be with him on his journey. That promise extends to all of us. How will we answer the call?

Eliot Church of Newton, UCC

The Eliot Church of Newton is an Open and Affirming congregation in the United Church of Christ (UCC). We affirm that all people are children of God. We honor and welcome everyone, and we are committed to being a uniting church that embraces the rich diversity of God's creation.